Claim to Fame

Most would know her as one of the Veterinarian's of Rutherford Veterinary Hospital, though on her days off she can often be found helping out at her parent's book store at the Preston Forest Shopping Center.

Biography

Summer Alyssa Houston was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico to dual-shifter parents, Toby and Maya. Her birth was not an easy one for Maya, as the doctors had told her several times to abort the child or risk her life. Maya insisted upon having the child after three previous miscarriages, and was granted this one as a Valentine's Day miracle. Unfortunately there were many complications with the birth, which resulted in Maya's death only a week later.

Left on his own to raise a baby, Toby quit his job working as a historian at the local university. Instead, he opened up a small bookshop so that he could keep the baby with him at all times.

Growing up in that environment made Summer a very studious young girl. She had pretty much whatever she wanted to read on hand at all times. She liked books well enough, but during the Spring, Summer, and Fall, she spent just as much time outside as she did in the shop. She was a natural with the animals of the neighborhood. Sheltering strays, caring for wounded wild animals, and nursing them all back to health to the amusement of her father.

When she was eight years of age, tragedy would befall the family again. Toby's parents were killed in a freak pile-up on the interstate. He took it pretty harshly, and hit the bottle. This is a time that Summer does not look on fondly, as her father pretty much ignored her and left her to her own devices. In this time, she would purposefully scour the neighborhood for strays and bring them home. Going so far as to building a small hutch in the backyard for the injured bunnies, and small rodents she had "saved".

So things went for four years. With her father soused all the time, she was unaware of her true nature and she began to edge up on puberty. At the age of twelve, she took to sneaking out at night. Moving through the streets, to the small desert and pinon-juniper woodlands. Looking for critters that only came out at night. Snakes, mostly. Some bugs to feed her other "pets". On one of her forays, something happened to change her life, and to snap her father out of his drunken stupor and become the stellar dad he once was.

She was attacked by a coyote. Her fear caused her to cower away from it behind a rock, but the 'yote came around and stared her down. The stress of the situation caused her to stare back at it with fear, but then something happened. Her body overheated and began to shake as she stared at it. She watched it, and watched it, then suddenly she was up and bolting across the woodland area, the coyote hot on her heels. In an instant she was on all fours, still running.

Summer never did figure out what happened that night, except for the fact that she woke up on the back porch the next morning, naked and aching from the change. When her father found her, he wrapped her up in a blanket and took her inside. He told her what she was, what he was, and how her body would go through this particular change whether she wanted it to or not on the night of a full moon.

After that night, Toby threw out all the bottles and sobered himself up completely. Taking better care of both himself and his daughter.

The remainder of Summer's teenage years would pass uneventfully. She went to school, doing things normal girls would do. Things changed in some ways, of course, but not in the ones that counted. She never lost her love for books, or her love of animals. While choosing a university, she chose ones that would allow her to study veterinary medicine. She was accepted to several schools, but chose UTD in Dallas. It was still close enough to her father to see him at the important holidays, and had the best program in the area.

Toby had a surprise for her though. Just before Summer was to move to Dallas to start her freshman year, Toby sold the shop and the house, renting a space in the Preston Forest Shopping Center and opening a new bookshop. He bought a small home in the Uptown area, so that she wouldn't have to waste her money on housing. This allowed her to use the money she had saved up to spend her freshman year in style. Good clothes, the best haircuts. Probably not the best use of her money, but as she was spending her free time working in her father's shop while studying, she could afford it.

Shortly after arriving in Dallas, Toby became friends with Eli Donato, and took up a position as an honorary member of the Muea Tseena Pack - an honor that was also extended to Summer.

Eventually she would graduate. Not the top of her class, but near enough that she was able to quickly secure a position at the Rutherford Veterinary Hospital as a new Veterinarian. When she doesn't have to work, or has no emergencies to tend to, she still volunteers at her dad's shop to help him out with inventory.

Character Details

Summer was, and always will be a daddy's girl at heart - nevermind that her father had a few troubled years. It's from him that she takes her love of books, and her determination to succeed no matter what is thrown in her path. Thanks to her years of being ignored, she's fairly good at holding her hurt in until she can't hold it anymore. In those instances she usually explodes with emotion.

When working at the animal hospital, she can be very cool and collected, completely focused on the situation. Detaching herself emotionally. Unless she loses a "patient", in which case she tends to take things to heart.

She is a generally charming, individual. She has a passion for fine wine, classy clothing, and a compulsion to buy new shoes whenever she is out and about.

She hates non-pack werewolves, thinking them to be rough-and-tumble base creatures. All rogues and bullies. Her packmates she adores, as she knows that they are much like an extended family to her. Something she has been missing for many years. Her thoughts on vampires are undecided. She treats each one as an individual, not trusting any of them.

Shifter (Coyote)

Her chosen form is the coyote; though truthfully it chose her rather than the other way around. With this form, she becomes a full-sized New Mexican coyote, and gets all of the shifter attributes such as strength and agility.

Veterinary Medicine

She is a highly skilled veterinarian, able to take care of pets and a wide variety of wild animals. With this, she is also a skilled animal surgeon.

First Aid Training

Most of her knowledge with first aid applies to animals, though during school she did have to use this knowledge on human subjects as well. She's highly skilled with such things, though not as much as someone with real medical training would be.

Book Shop Managing

It's a skill, and it's not. It's more a learned trait in which she knows what books are where, what money is owed where, how to do inventory, and any number of other things involved in helping her father run a shop.

Shifter (Coyote)

Lover Not a Fighter

Her entire life has been spent caring for animals. Her only fighting skill is verbal, and only in protection of mistreated/abused animals. Otherwise, she's not only can't fight outside of her shifted form, but she has an aversion to it.

Shopaholic

Possibly not a real weakness, but more of an inability to stop herself. Whenever she sees a cute outfit, an shiny new pair of shoes, something trendy… she must get it. No matter if she can afford it. No matter if her credit cards are maxed out. It's a must have. She will do whatever she can to get the item she wants.

Taphophobia

She has a fear of cemeteries, since so many people in her life have died. Not only that, she has a fear of being buried alive in a cemetery and being unable to dig herself out.

Animal Influence

As a shifter working in a Veterinary Hospital, it is sometimes difficult to resist the urge to shift. With so many available creatures around to become, Summer must fight against all odds to keep herself from winding up being mistaken for one of her patients.